For many seasons now, the AL East has been considered baseball’s toughest division largely because it is home to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Heading into the 2013 campaign, the division remains a beast but for a different reason.

Now it is about the depth.

Every team in the division will enter spring training believing anything less than a 90-win season will be a disappointment. Every team is right to have such lofty expectations, too, which makes the AL East the most difficult division race to predict.

Ranking the projected races:

1. AL East

Since 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays have turned this division into more than a Yankees-Red Sox battle. Last season, the Baltimore Orioles finally returned to relevancy. And 2013 shapes up as the Toronto Blue Jays’ time. They will open camp with the division’s most talented roster, but as we all know, that doesn’t guarantee success. The most accurate way to predict the order of finish in this division might be to draw names out of a hat. It is that much up in the air.

2. AL West

One certainty here: The Houston Astros will finish last. After that, nothing is definite. The Los Angeles Angels have the strongest team on paper, but the Oakland A’s will tell you how little that means. The Texas Rangers look to be down, but don’t discount how far their rotation could take them. The way the Seattle Mariners have upgraded their offense, to see them contend would be less surprising than what we saw in 2012 when the A’s claimed the division title on the final day of the regular season.

3. NL West

Picking third, fourth and fifth is easy: Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies. But the top? Not so much. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ mad spending should prove enough to unseat the World Series champion San Francisco Giants but not before the clubs engage in the best two-team race of any division.

4. NL East

The Washington Nationals have to be the favorites. They won a major league-best 98 games last season and will be improved this season because the innings shackle is off Stephen Strasburg and because Bryce Harper no longer is a teenager. But the arrival of the Upton brothers should help the Atlanta Braves keep this race interesting. If Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard bounce back from injuries, the Philadelphia Phillies could make it a threesome.

5. NL Central

After winning the division by nine games last season—the biggest margin in the majors—the Cincinnati Reds have improved their roster more than any team in the division. The St. Louis Cardinals will take their chances, though. They have proved the past two years that they can have postseason success as a wild card.

6. AL Central

Just as it was last season, this is the Detroit Tigers’ territory. Unlike last season, it should not take them until late September to rise to the top.